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Doppelgänger (Yuki's Lore)
Doppelgängers, also known as Shadow-Selves or Mortal Shadow Selves, are a supernatural occurrence that were created by Hecate, The Witch-Queen, with the assistance of the Trinity Coven, via the use of the Spell of Mirrors. This was done in order to restore balance to Nature as a result of Silas and Amara becoming true immortals after consuming Qetsiyah's immortality elixir. The purpose of this supernatural species is to maintain the natural balance by dying in place of their immortal progenitors. For this reason, doppelgängers have existed for at least 1,000 years during which time they have been born and died in the place of Silas and Amara, who, as true immortals, were invulnerable to any conventional weapon. There are two known doppelgänger lines which stem from Silas and Amara, respectively. Known doppelgängers of Silas are Stefan Salvatore and Tom Avery, and known doppelgängers of Amara are Tatia, Katherine Pierce and Elena Gilbert. As of Season Eight of the Vampire Diaries ''and Season One of ''Legacies, following the end of The Originals ''series, Elena Gilbert is the last remaining doppelgänger, as Katherine sacrificed herself in order to save her daughter. However, since Elena is shown to be deceased in a flash forward, this species will inevitably become extinct, unless Klaus managed to resurrect Katherine like he has vowed. Creation : "Qetsiyah: When they drank the immortality elixir, they violated the natural law that all living things must die, so Nature found a balance by creating mortal shadow selves.'' Stefan: Doppelgängers."'' : —Original Sin The phenomenon of the shadow-self was created via the Spell of Mirrors and occurs in order to counterbalance a disruption to Nature's law that all living things must die. Qetsiyah, one of the most powerful witches and member of a very gifted people called the Travelers, created a spell for immortality with the intention that she and Silas would drink it together at their wedding. However, Silas stole the immortality elixir and used it on himself and his lover, Amara, who was Qetsiyah's handmaiden, so that the two could be together for eternity. Disrupting the balance of Nature when they became truly immortal, Hecate created and cast the Spell of Mirrors in order to allow Nature to began to create doppelgängers of Silas and Amara that could die to counter the balance that was disrupted by these new immortals. With Silas and Amara now both dead, it is unknown if Hecate's spell will allow Nature to continue to spawn more doppelgängers via the bloodlines of Elena, Nedyalka, and Adyelya. It is most likely that the spell is not longer active. Introduction of the Doppelgängers The first doppelgängers introduced in this universe were Elena Gilbert and Katherine Pierce (also known as Katerina Petrova), but they were initially believed to exist due to Elena being one of Katherine's descendants. However, it was later revealed that, while doppelgängers do have a bloodline connection, they are not simply a supernatural species like werewolves—they are actually mystically occurring beings who are loopholes to the creation of the Immortality Spell by Qetsiyah in the 1st century BCE. Because Nature decreed that all living things must die, the Immortality Spell disrupted the balance Nature had created, which forced Nature to counter it by creating living "shadow-selves" of the immortal Silas and Amara who could die in their place. These doppelgängers are believed to either be direct descendants of Silas and Amara's respective bloodlines, or descendants of one of their siblings, who would be the closest genetic match to continue their lineage. Because their creation was a consequence of the use of magic, doppelgängers are supernatural, and as such, their blood can be used as a binding agent for powerful spells, such as the spell that created the Originals, and therefore the creation of the vampire race. However, they have no actual supernatural powers of their own aside from the mystical properties of their blood, and the only reason it is known that they are truly supernatural is because Elena mercy-killed Alaric Saltzman while he was wearing a Gilbert Ring in hopes that it would cause him to come back, as the ring can only resurrect the wearer if they die at the hands of a supernatural being, and they were unsure of who had originally seriously wounded Alaric before Elena got there. Since the ring brought Alaric back from the dead, it was confirmed that Elena, despite being otherwise human, was a supernatural being. This also confirmed Elijah Mikaelson's suspicion that the Gilbert ring wouldn't work on Elena because she was technically a supernatural being. Though doppelgängers are supposed to represent mortality in the place of an otherwise truly immortal being, they can achieve immortality through vampirism, as was in the case of Katherine, Stefan, and Elena, as a result of their being technically human as well. This could also be because vampires aren't fully invulnerable creatures like immortals are—they can be killed through various means such as staking, heart extraction, decapitation, etc. History Powers and Abilities * '''Blood:' Doppelgängers, being mystical and recurrent, are massive sources of magical power. ** The blood of a doppelgänger can be used to link supernatural beings with the help of magic conducted by any witch. ** Their blood can also be used to bind an extremely powerful curse or spell or to use as a power source in spells that require more magic than the witch in question possesses on their own. ** For some spells, the blood must come from a human doppelgänger. For other spells, the blood of a doppelgänger can still be used even if they've been turned into a vampire, as seen in Death and the Maiden when Qetsiyah used Elena's blood (along with Katherine and Amara's blood) to transfer the Anchor from Amara to Bonnie. There are certain spells and uses that require the doppelgänger to be "pure" and human, however, like the undoing of the Hybrid Curse and the siring of hybrids. ** The blood of the last two "living" doppelgängers can be used to reverse spells cast using non-traditional forms of magic, especially Spirit Magic (e.g. turning a vampire back into a (dead) human, undoing the spell that bound the Other Side, reversing the spells cast on daylight rings for vampires, removing a triggered gene in those cursed with lycanthropy, etc). * Linking: Doppelgängers, being modelled after immortals and other doppelgängers, have an inherently strong mystical connection to each other that can be used to invoke linking spells. * Unique Physiology: Doppelgängers are fully capable of being turned into vampires, and can retain the mystical properties of their blood despite their vampiric abilities. Since they can also be born witches, as in the case of Katerina Petrova, it can be assumed that doppelgängers could theoretically also be born as other supernatural species, such werewolves or Brotherhood of the Five hunters. Weaknesses * Magic: Doppelgängers are susceptible to the powers of witchcraft. This is inclusive of mystical objects such as Papa Tunde's Blade, and Dark Objects. * Mortality: Despite of their supernatural status, doppelgängers are very much human and share many of the same weaknesses as non-supernatural beings (e.g. age, decapitation, disease, heart-failure, suffocation, etc.) The Doppelgänger Progenitors Known Doppelgänger Lines Amara's Doppelgängers Silas' Doppelgängers Doppelgänger Lines Doppelgänger Myths, Facts and Theories * A Doppelgänger is the ghostly or in some cases, a physical double of a living person. The word Doppelgänger is a loanword from German, written there (as any noun) with an initial capital letter Doppelgänger, composed from doppel, meaning "double", and ganger, as "walker". In English, the word is conventionally not capitalized, and it is also common to drop the German diacritic umlaut on the letter "a" and write "Doppelgänger", although the correct spelling without umlaut would be "doppelgaenger". * In some traditions, when a doppelgänger is seen by a person's friends or relatives, the contact prophesies illness or danger, while a person seeing their own doppelgänger is an omen of death. * In other traditions or legends, a doppelgänger is connected with the person copied; sometimes causing the feelings of injuries between the original and the doppelgänger. For example, if the doppelgänger is injured, the other person will also be hurt or feel pain. * "Doppelgänger" is a German word or term meaning "double walker" or "double goer"―a shadow self that is thought to accompany every person. Traditionally, it is said that only the owner of the doppelgänger can see this phantom self and that it can be a harbinger of death. Occasionally, however, a doppelgänger can be seen by a person's friends or family, resulting in quite a bit of confusion. * 'Definition of a Doppelgänger varies between the accounts of the old ages. They were mentioned as double spirits of human beings since the very old times. They were also mentioned as apparitions or reflections of people. Although they looked exactly the same or indistinguishably similar with the person they impersonated, Doppelgängers were not twins of these people. It was stated in some mythological accounts that Doppelgängers cast no shadows and had no reflections in the mirror. * The term "Doppelgänger" is used often to describe someone that looks just like (or at least very similar to) another person, but there are more mysterious and sinister roots than the word suggests. * Literally meaning "double-goer", a real Doppelgänger is an apparition that appears in place of a person in a location or situation that would not otherwise be possible. Many people have seen this image of themselves, both in life and in visions. Other times, a person may be seen walking through a room when they are, in actuality, several miles away at the time. The third most common sightings occur when the image of a person appears to walk past an area twice in a row - moving in the same direction - to where it would be impossible for the person to have returned there fast enough. * A Doppelgänger is a creature who has the ability to mimic any human being's appearence and characteristics. Usually a Doppelgänger chooses a particularly wealthy person to impersonate, being that they are lazy and would rather have resources already for them. Occasionally, but not always, a Doppelgänger has a larger, more detailed plan for why they would impersonate a person. This often makes them seem "evil" or "malevolent". * According to legend, Doppelgängers (German for “double-walker”) are paranormal duplicates of a real person. They can manifest in a number of ways: You can see them out of the corner of your eye, meet them on a lonely road somewhere, or, chillingly, see them standing behind you when looking in a mirror. Sometimes a Doppelgänger can’t be seen by the person at all, but instead manifests to other people in a completely different location. It may even cooperate with the person, help them with tasks, or act as a surrogate body of sorts. * The term has, in the vernacular, come to refer to any double or look-alike of a person, most commonly in reference to a so-called evil twin, or to bilocation. Alternatively, the word is used to describe a phenomenon where you catch your own image out of the corner of your eye. In some traditions, seeing one's own doppelgänger is an omen of death. A doppelgänger seen by friends or relatives of a person may sometimes bring bad luck, or indicate an approaching illness or health problem. * The doppelgängers of folklore cast no shadow, and have no reflection in a mirror or in water. They are supposed to provide advice to the person they shadow, but this advice can be misleading or malicious. They can also, in rare instances, plant ideas in their victim's mind or appear before friends and relatives, causing confusion. In many cases once someone has viewed his own doppelgänger, he is doomed to be haunted by images of his ghostly counterpart. * Some accounts of doppelgängers, sometimes called the ‘evil twin’ suggests that they might attempt to provide advice to the person they shadow, but that this advice can be misleading or malicious. They may also attempt to plant sinister ideas in their victim’s mind or cause them great confusion. For this reason, people were advised to avoid communicating with their own doppelgänger at all costs. * Other folklore says that it is considered unlucky to try to communicate with a doppelgänger. * In Ancient Egyptian mythology, a "ka" was a tangible "spirit double" having the same memories and feelings as the person to whom the counterpart belongs. In one Egyptian myth entitled, "The Greek Princess", an Egyptian view of the Trojan War, a "ka" of Helen was used to mislead Paris of Troy, helping to stop the war. * In Norse mythology, a "vardøger" is a ghostly double who precedes a living person and is seen performing their actions in advance. In Finnish mythology, this is called having an "etiäinen", i.e., "a first comer". Norse folklore describes entities known as vardøger, ghostly beings that preceded their living counterparts, taking their places at various activities and performing their actions in advance. The spirit with the subject's footsteps, voice, scent, or appearance and overall demeanour precedes them in a location or activity, resulting in witnesses believing they've seen or heard the actual person before the person physically arrives. This bears a subtle difference from a doppelgänger, with a less sinister connotation. * “Vardøger” (vardøgr or varsel) in Norse mythology can be considered as another reference to Doppelgängers. A vardoger was the ghost-like double spirit of a person which was seen doing the actions of a person before he did it, kind of like a reverse déjà vu that actually happens. In Norse mythology it was also interpreted that these beings might be some kind of bilocation (existing at two locations at the same time) as well as guardian spirits for a human being. * In Breton mythology as well as in Cornish and Norman French folklore, the doppelgänger is a version of the Ankou, a personification of death. * Doppelgängers were once thought of as aliens who would land on earth in order to execute a plan to invade the human race and replace every person with a look-alike Doppelgänger. This is not the case. Doppelgängers, like most other mythical creatures, have some tie to the human race. They are not a different species altogether, but rather a hybrid. Trivia Quotes Gallery Tropes Category:Supernatural Category:Species Category:Doppelgängers Category:Humans Category:Immortal Category:Featured Articles Category:Witch Category:Witches